Jackson keeps Warriors chipping away

WARRIORS

Updated 11:50 pm, Thursday, December 13, 2012

Photo: Mike Ehrmann, Getty Images

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MIAMI, FL - DECEMBER 12: Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors celebrates a last second shot during a game against the Miami Heat at American Airlines Arena on December 12, 2012 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) less

MIAMI, FL - DECEMBER 12: Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors celebrates a last second shot during a game against the Miami Heat at American Airlines Arena on December 12, 2012 in Miami, Florida. ... more

Photo: Mike Ehrmann, Getty Images

Jackson keeps Warriors chipping away

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Orlando --

The Warriors boarded a plane for Orlando on Thursday with retaliation on their minds, but it sounded like they might have packed some degree of gratitude, as well.

The Magic handed Golden State a 102-94 loss Dec. 3 at Oracle Arena that could have provided a motivational tool for each time head coach Mark Jackson thinks his team is starting to get a tad overconfident.

"We've learned that we're not a team that can walk in and say, 'OK, this is a trap game.' They're all trap games for us," Jackson said after Thursday's practice. "We have to play our brand of basketball to put ourselves in position to win. We understand who we are and how we have to go about winning. Win, lose or draw against Orlando, it won't be because we weren't ready."

That hasn't always been the case for the Warriors (15-7), who hadn't handled winning all that well prior to this season-long seven-game road trip - which they've opened with five straight wins, including Wednesday's 97-95 stunner over the defending champion Heat.

The Warriors followed their first big win of the season - a 114-110 victory on the Clippers' home court Nov. 3 - with an emotionless loss to lowly Sacramento. They followed their first three-game winning streak of the season with a 102-94 loss Dec. 3 to an Orlando team that has gone 1-3 since then and has eight wins all season.

There's no doubt that the Warriors get up for the big ones, going 7-1 against teams that had winning records coming into the games. They also have a tendency to play down to poorer competition, starting the season 1-4 against teams that came in with losing records, before pulling even with wins over Detroit, Washington and Charlotte on this trip.

"I think that the games at Washington and Charlotte speak to our improvement," power forward David Lee said. "We got a big win at Brooklyn, one that very few people thought we would get, and then we came back and took care of business against a couple of teams that we needed to take care of business against.

"We know we're not the most talented team in the league. We can't underestimate anybody, and it'll continue to be that way, even if we win 30 games in a row."

Even as hope is mounting, Jackson continually reminds his team that nothing is expected of it. He tells his players that they're undersized and overmatched - even when they're not.

When the players arrived at the practice facility before their first game, he had the Western Conference standings posted in the locker room. Though each team was 0-0, he placed the Warriors in the 13th position - five places outside of the playoffs, in the spot ESPN Magazine predicted they'd finish.

Lee added, "Oh, believe me, we don't need to be reminded. I understand that a lot of people didn't think we are going to make the playoffs, but I think we were surprised at the amount of negativity toward our team. That's why we're going to go out there every single night and play with a chip on our shoulder and try to prove everybody wrong."

Jackson says the preacher in him makes it easy to find fresh inspirational material in current anecdotes and those from history. Before upsetting Miami on Wednesday, the coach told his team about George Foreman's 1994 fight against Michael Moorer.

Foreman, 45 at the time, refused to sit down in between rounds, showing the champion across from him that no matter how many blows he took or how badly his body wanted to shut down, he was in it for the long haul. Foreman became boxing's oldest heavyweight champion when he knocked out Moorer in the 10th round.

"We know how important making the playoffs is to this organization, and we would hate to look back and think all of our hard fighting was for nothing," Lee said. "We already have the (losses) at Sacramento and at home against Orlando. We're trying to protect against a letdown like that happening again."

Refusing to sit down.

Friday's game

Who: Warriors (15-7) vs. Magic (8-13)

Where: Orlando

When: 4 p.m.

TV/Radio: CSNBA/680

Of note: Orlando has beaten the Warriors in seven of the past eight meetings, including a 102-94 victory Dec. 3 at Oracle Arena. ... The Magic are 54-30 (.643) at the Amway Center since it opened in 2010, but they have won only four of 10 home games this season. ... Orlando is averaging 17 free-throw attempts per game, which would be the fewest in NBA history, undercutting Phoenix's 18 per game in 2005-06. ... Magic forwards Al Harrington (right knee) and Hedo Turkoglu (left hand) are out.

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